By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel manufacturers are looking for brand-new outlets in Asia for their exports and exploring producing other biofuels as supply to the European Union, their most significant buyer, dries up ahead of anti-dumping tariffs, biofuel executives and analysts said.

The EU will enforce provisionary anti-dumping responsibilities of in between 12.8% and 36.4% on Chinese biodiesel from Friday, hitting over 40 business consisting of leading manufacturers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export company that deserved $2.3 billion last year.

Some bigger producers are considering the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's top marine fuel center, as they seek to offset already falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives said.

Exports to the bloc have actually fallen greatly given that mid-2023 amid examinations. Volumes in the first six months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 lots, Chinese custom-mades information revealed.

June shipments diminished to simply over 50,000 tons, the lowest given that mid-2019, according to customizeds data.

At their peak, exports to the EU a record 1.8 million loads in 2023, representing 90% of all Chinese biodiesel exports that year. The Netherlands was the leading importer in 2023, taking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customs figures revealed.

Chinese producers of biodiesel have enjoyed fat revenues in the last few years, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that grants aids to companies that are utilizing biodiesel as a sustainable transport fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

A lot of China's biodiesel producers are privately-run small plants utilizing scores of employees processing waste oil collected from countless Chinese restaurants. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value products like soaps and processing leather items.

However, the boom was short-lived. The EU began in August in 2015 examining Indonesian biodiesel that was presumed of circumventing duties by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced artificially low and damaging regional producers.

Anticipating the tariffs, traders equipped up on used cooking oil (UCO), raising prices of the feedstock, while rates of biodiesel sank in view of diminishing demand for the Chinese supply.

"With large costs of UCO partly supported by strong U.S. and European demand, and free-falling item rates, business are having a difficult time surviving," said Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated grease, or HVO, a main type of biodiesel, have actually cut in half versus in 2015's average to the present $1,200 to $1,300 per metric load and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan added.

With low rates, biodiesel plants have actually cut their operations to an all-time low of under 20% of existing capacity usually in July, down from a peak of 50% last seen in early 2023, according to Chinese consultancies Sublime China Information and JLC.

Meanwhile, diminishing biodiesel sales are increasing China's UCO exports, which experts anticipate are set to touch a new high this year. UCO exports skyrocketed by two-thirds year-on-year in the first half of 2024 to 1.41 million heaps, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top destinations.

OUTLETS

While many smaller sized plants are most likely to shutter production forever, larger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are checking out brand-new outlets including the marine fuel market in your home and in the important center of Singapore, which is using more biodiesel for ship fuel blending, according to the biofuel executives.

One of the producers, Longyan Zhuoyue, agreed in January with COSCO Shipping to use more biodiesel in marine fuel.

Companies would also accelerate planning and building of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives said. China is expected to announce an SAF required before the end of 2024.

They have actually also been scouting for new biodiesel customers outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are local requireds for the alternative fuel, the authorities added.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu